


Rimmer, Computer Technician

by FleaBee



Category: Red Dwarf
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-07 19:18:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14677713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FleaBee/pseuds/FleaBee
Summary: After Lister accidentally floods Holly, Rimmer takes it on his own shoulders to repair the computer in secret, no matter how long it takes to get the darf computer working again.





	Rimmer, Computer Technician

Rimmer stood in front of the computer room that housed Holly. He couldn't believe how close to being permanently offline himself that he'd come the day Holly had been flooded. He'd only switched over to his lightbee earlier in the morning as a part of routine maintenance to make sure that vital piece of hardware was still working for when he went off the ship. When everything went offline that included the holographic projection suite which was on the floor below Holly. It had been flooded as well, something he neglected to tell Lister who was already depressed enough about taking Holly offline.

They were now running off a backup computer they didn't know they had and he used that as an excuse for continuing to run off the lightbee. Rimmer and Kryten had spent time deciding how much power they had with the backup system. And what was essential to them and how many of the non-essential systems they were able to use.

The floors had been mopped and the heating was on, fans blowing to dry everything out in Holly's suite and the holographic suite. Kryten had cleaned everything to the best of his ability and that was the end of his involvement. Cat didn't care about the flooding once he was able to use all his electronics once again. Lister felt guilty since it was his fault Holly was offline in the first place but had put fixing the computer into the impossible department now that they weren't going to freeze and suffocate to death and instead started working on continuing with the maintenance of what he could fix to the surprise of Rimmer who thought he would go to slobbing about.

Rimmer on the other hand could not forget about the computer. Holly had always been there when he needed someone to talk to. Both before and after they'd lost the rest of the crew. He owed his existence to Holly. If Holly didn't turn on his hologram his existence would've stopped the day the radiation leak happened.

Cautiously Rimmer walker into the computer room, walking between the bays of cabinets that housed the computer who was supposed to run Red Dwarf.

While Rimmer was not a Hologrammic Online Laser-Linked YiB mainframe technician, he did know a thing or two about vending machines and vending machines had onboard computers to run the basic A.I and the program for the stasis of the food it stored or was fed from the kitchen which was the case for some of the soup and drinks vending machines.

Drying out the room would not be good enough to get Holly back online again. Each and every board would need to be dried out individually so it didn't rust or grow mould or fungus.

Rimmer pulled open a notebook he'd prepared earlier, making detailed plans of the floor plan which no longer matched the blueprints on file and what exactly was in each rack. Holly had a number of upgrades in the time he was instated and until the time of the accident three million years ago.

Bleary-eyed by the end of recording everything in the room, Rimmer left for the holographic projection suite to see that it had dried out much quicker then Holly's room since it the flooding hadn't been as severe and Kryten had managed to get everything back online for him, it had turned out only the flood had got wet in this room.

He'd never done this for himself before, Holly had always done most things for him, now was a good time to learn. Sitting at the console, he refreshed his programming so it felt like he'd just had a refreshing sleep. It wasn't something he liked doing since it made him feel like he wasn't human, the sooner Holly's servers were dried out, the more likely it was that Holly would be online again. Feeling refreshed and energetic, Rimmer made the trek back to the computer room to begin taking apart the first rack of gear.

\- Red Dwarf -

Rimmer's notebook quickly filled up as he recorded each and every component that he took apart. The nearby rooms were taken over, each one labelled with rack numbers and the gear inside. Some rooms had more items in them than others. Shelving from other areas on the ship placed into the rooms by the scutters and the unneeded gear moved to other areas of the ship.

Kryten protested as his programming was updated so he didn't clean any of the rooms once pulled apart gear was placed inside or so he couldn't blab to Lister or Cat.

Each shelf in each room was labelled and the heating and humidity changed to dry everything out on each room without overheating the gear.

Rimmer examined his notebooks and each room. It had taken him two months to pull Holly apart. Two months with no sleep and seeing no one else. He still had a lot of work ahead of him. Grime and rust needed to be cleaned off all the boards that got wet that he hadn't been able to remove before he could get to them. Some looked like they were beyond saving. That could wait till later. He needed a break. The last thing he did was lock all the rooms so no one could touch anything. The last thing he needed was Lister or Cat undoing all his hard work.

"Did you finally forgive me?" Lister asked from the lounge of their room. Wearing only boxers, a beer in one hand and comic in the other. The room was a mess and looked like Kryten hadn't cleaned it in the past two months.

"If you must know I have been busy with maintenance in other areas of the ship. We have a lot of work ahead of us without Holly around." To be honest, Rimmer had not been angry at Lister. He was happy that he wasn't the only one who made mistakes that had life-threatening consequences. "Right now I am going to have some much needed downtime. Do not bother me unless it's an emergency."

He was grouchy from the lack of sleep and the last thing he needed was Lister stirring him up. It seemed Lister was relieved enough to just see him again that he left him to his sleep.

\- Red Dwarf -

Rimmer had spent time printing and binding Holly's operational books. Placing the covers of his Astronavigation books over the top. He would never be an astronavigation officer. He just could not pass the written test. Something that he'd only started to accept in recent years. He'd been doing the actual job for years and had all the textbooks memorised for even longer even if he didn't understand most of what he had memorised.

He didn't want the others to know that he was trying to fix Holly. If they knew and he failed - he just didn't want to deal with the disappointment of them seeing him fail. Have them know the disappointment he saw in himself. The belittling and teasing of trying to do something above his experience level he knew would come if they knew what he was trying to do. Instead he'd decided to pretend he'd gone back to trying to be an Astronavigation Officer and they had believed him. Instead they teased him about how he was going to fail his tests. He faked taking tests where he actually spent the time working on Holly and he faked failing, writing up the fails himself that he made sure he got while around Lister while he made it look like he was trying to hide his failing grade. He pat himself on the back at how pretending to be Ace for the years he'd been gone had made it easier to fake being an exaggerated version of his younger self who had been obsessed with exams.

\- Red Dwarf -

When they'd come across a safe dereelicts, Rimmer had started salvaging everything he could that would help fix Holly. Salvaging computer servers that were incompatible with what they had. Lister didn't even bat an eyelid in his direction. They'd been stripping more to keep Red Dwarf in working order for years now. She was in good condition for a three million year old spaceship. But the more supplies they had the better, they'd learnt that from living on Starbug from years on end.

"I'm going into stasis," Lister announced once they'd finished loading everything onto Red Dwarf from the derelict and returned to their room for much needed relaxation time.

"You're what?" Rimmer dropped his tea, he couldn't even keep the shock off his face.

Lister had refused to go onto stasis ever since they found out Kristine Kochanski wasn't as dead as they'd originally been told.

"Going into stasis. Me and Cat. Kryten said that we're coming up to dead space and there is nothing detected on the deep range scanner for a number of years after the derelict we visited today."

"Make sure you throw all your food away," Rimmer said as he cleaned up his tea. "Do your laundry and pack up everything. I'm not going to clean up for you and I'm not going to put up with an untidy room for however long you're in stasis for. If it's not clean to my liking I will drag you out of stasis and not let you back in until you clean up." Rimmer lectured.

He wasn't sure when Lister gave up find Kochanski but this was the first time he hadn't moaned about her. He didn't look like he'd even given her a thought and Rimmer wasn't going to ruin everything by mentioning her now.

Lister's face fell. "You're not coming into stasis with us?"

"I wouldn't be going into stasis, I'd be turned off. Don't worry, I'll still be here when you get out. As much as I don't like the idea of being alone, this ship is falling apart and I don't trust the holographic suite to keep working without Holly around."

The flicker on Lister's face was one that suggested he'd forgotten that Rimmer was dead passed by. It always made Rimmer happy when Lister forgot. It made him feel like he was still human.

"Are you sure? The last time we went into stasis you lasted three days before you demanded Kryten to turn you off. There is nothing wrong with coming into stasis with us." Lister offered.

 

"I will be fine. Believe it or not, I lasted hundreds of years as Ace without you around. It will help erase the experience of Rimmerworld. One day you will die and I'll have to learn to live without you."

"Rimmer, are you forgetting that you're programmed to die not long after I do."

Rimmer didn't reply. He remembered but there was a chance the program wouldn't run because of corruption or that it could potentially be deleted or overridden and if the program didn't run, he would not terminate himself. "Dave, Rimmerworld was a long time ago and a different situation. I'll be fine. It will give me a chance to catch up on my to do list. It's bugging me that I am behind schedule." He said without addressing the programming.

\- Red Dwarf -

With his to do list finally up to date, Rimmer went down to the computer server rooms for the first time in years. He didn't mean to leave Holly for that long, daily life on the ship had got in the way and with Lister and Cat in stasis he could finally sit down uninterrupted for however long was required. Having read through the entire manual, he knew which components were which and what was the easiest to begin repairing. It was in his nature to start big and it was immensely hard to put his nature to the side. This was more important than just him, this was Holly's existence on the line. Pushing everything aside with a deep breath Rimmer opened the door to the room that contained the first part of equipment he would work on. The one that was closest related to the vending machine boards he was an expert in.

Hours were spent making sure all the boards and connectors were cleaned correctly. Capacitors replaced, connections soldered each component individually tested before the first piece of equipment could be turned on and tested it was working. The controller that linked Holly into the intercom system was what he was working on.

Rimmer looked at the time. The day was at an end. He walked to one of the bedrooms one floor up to sleep. He didn't want to be making the trek every day between his room and Holly. He also didn't have anything pressing to do so he could sleep and do the ship's maintenance while he was working on Holly. He didn't see a need to go without sleep like when he originally started looking at Holly.

\- Red Dwarf -

Rimmer examined the computer room, impressed at his work. Sure it had taken one hundred and seventy seven years to get to this point. Everything that was still in working order was put back together and placed back in their racks. Spaces left where equipment had been beyond repair with notes stuck to everything for what he needed to do still, mostly equipment that was on the bottom of the racks that had been exposed to water for months before Holly went offline. Holly was not in working order, but the important thing was, he now had a shopping list of equipment to be salvaged now they were coming up to active space again. Satisfied he went to find Kryten to get Lister and Cat out of stasis.

\- Red Dwarf -

Rimmer listened to Lister chew his toenails. It was driving him up the wall as he tried to focus on the computer manual.

"Why do you keep reading that thing?" Lister asked looking over his shoulder trying to get a better look. It was a bunch of numbers and gibberish that Lister didn't understand.

"Because Listy, it's important," Rimmer replied as he didn't even look up, flipping the page.

"You failed your astronavs last month. Can't you give up already?" Lister said as he collapsed on the bottom bunk. "Can't you recognise a lost cause? I thought hundreds of years would be the hint you needed that you will never pass."

Rimmer had given up a long time ago, but if Lister found out what he was doing, at this point he'd want to help and then take credit for getting Holly to work. He didn't want anyone else stealing the credit for literally hundreds of years work. Holly was his project and he was going to complete it on his own without help from anyone else. He believed that he had everything that he needed to finish the last of the repairs after hundreds of salvage attempts. Sadly they were not anywhere near dead space and Kryten was driving everyone up the wall with his midlife crisis which didn't give him any time to himself to work on Holly uninterrupted.

"Please don't tell me you are going to spend the whole time I'm in stasis studying that book," Lister said from the bed which caused Rimmer to drop his book.

"Stasis, but we're nowhere near dead space. Why would you go into stasis now." Rimmer wondered if he'd fallen asleep and was dreaming about what he wished.

When Lister suggested they go into stasis in order to help Kryten, he could not believe his luck. Kryten went into stasis with Cat and Lister this time since they currently could not trust the droid on his own leaving him on his own to do exactly what he needed to do.

\- Red Dwarf -

Rimmer had finished his final testing of every component. It was the moment of truth, turning Holly on and seeing if he booted. Nervously Rimmer bit his lip as he turned on the power button. He was expecting to have destroyed Holly, waiting for a bang. The computer didn't start up with a bang, everything turned on, but he'd come up to a diagnostic screen instead of Holly.

Reading through the pages of text, it was just a normal diagnostics that were supposed to run before Holly was booted up. Starting the diagnostics, Rimmer left for bed. They would take hours to complete and he may as well be doing something useful like sleeping.

The diagnostics showed Rimmer that he still had a few components he needed to fix up and after that he needed to recover certain things from backup to install over the top of the hardware for the components he'd been forced to replace. He still had a lot of work ahead of him and he had time on his side still since Lister wasn't due out of stasis yet.

\- Red Dwarf -

"Please work," Rimmer begged after he'd finished his additional repairs. This was the fifth time he'd tried to boot Holly. Every single time brought on a panic attack about him making things worse. He watched as the computer progressed further, bringing up the image of the balled man that was Red Dwarf computer. It had gone further.

The computer appeared to look around before focusing on him. "Gordon Benett, Arn what happened to you. You've gotten old."

"It has been many years since you were last online. Do you remember what happened?" Rimmer asked the computer.

"Dave flooded the bathroom. I didn't know until just before I went offline. Didn't even notice I was slowly going more daft as the system tried to cope. At the moment, I feel better than I have in years. I actually feel like I have an IQ again. Just a mo, running online diagnostics and checking against offline diagnostics. My IQ's now 8000, yet my life expectancy is fine. How did you do that?" Holly said is his monotone voice that Rimmer had missed so much.

"You were dead, a lot of the equipment was dead. I had to use parts from other ships to get you online." Rimmer explained to the computer giving a very lengthy report of exactly what he'd done. "Can I switch you back online for the whole ship? The backup computer is a jerk and insists on using internal snail mail to communicate with us."

Holly was silent for several moments. "Bit of a problem with that Arn. The cables that connect me to the rest of the ship have been damaged."

"Of course they are." Rimmer let out a heavy sigh. "I don't know if I have enough to replace or fix every run. Can't I use the portable monitor for you."

"Not without the rest of the ships system running," Holly replied. "Go sleep Arn and after you have had a proper rest I will have instructions for what you need to do."

\- Red Dwarf -

After a good night's sleep Rimmer loaded his written report onto the computer all the work he'd done and downloaded the data Holly had for him.

He spent a few days going over the data and was given data for how to repair the data cable runs and checking the inventory.

"I don't have enough cable," Rimmer input exactly what he did have into the console.

"Do the run for the holographic suite first." Holly requested. "Probably best to attach me to one area at a time."

Rimmer turned on the link between the holographic suite and the computer server room. His head feeling less foggy the moment the computer was turned on. He'd forgotten what it was like with Holly controlling the system. He'd never felt like this before, so alive despite how dead he was. He'd felt more alive as a hardlight hologram but not this alive.

"You're right, it has been a long time, Ace" Holly said as she started going through his data.

"Do not call me that, I am not him anymore," Rimmer frowned not liking the reminder of his failure as Ace.

\- Red Dwarf -

It had taken months that lead into years of derelict hunting for the cable that was good enough and long enough to run back to Holly's server room to cover the areas that were the distances required, with slowly switching him to be the main computer back in control. Lister and Cat didn't notice and if Kryten did, he didn't say anything. The server room ended up with a few updated during that time with Holly's guidance everything went quicker and a lot more smoothly than when he'd been guessing his way through everything.

"Are we really ready to switch you across?" Rimmer asked, having gone over everything with Holly over and over again. Simulations ran for what felt like the millionth time to Holly when in reality it had only been twenty two times. Rimmer had everything memorised, he wasn't making mistakes. Holly knew that he would be nervous until everything had been completed.

"If you don't do it now, you will probably never do it. I know how nervous you get," Holly said.

"I don't want to keep putting up with that backup computer. Alright. Ready," Rimmer took a deep breath before turning to the monitor and activating a link back to Lister. The hardest part would be talking to Lister. While he had an idea of how Lister would reply to him, he had no idea how he would respond overall. He had a speech planned but if Lister asked questions that went off his script he would not be able to wing it.

"Listy," Rimmer greeted him. "Just turning off the power, won't be long, just doing some maintenance. Just letting you know that it's nothing to worry about." Rimmer continued in a sing song voice.

Lister went from amused to worried rather quickly. "You're what? What maintenance are you doing that you haven't told me about? Just wait, I'll be there in a minute to help you with that. Where are you?"

Rimmer cut the connection as Lister was pulling off his long johns and pulling on his leather pants. Rimmer turned to the console that would cut the power. A step that was necessary to have the backup computer taken offline and to plug Holly back into the system.

It went dark for several minutes and then strangely quiet as the backup computer went offline. The backup lights kicking in and the backup air filter system starting up so they would not suffocate while everything was offline. Something he'd checked earlier to make sure it would work as it was supposed to. Due to the size of Red Dwarf it would take a long time for them to suffocate with the air systems offline, unless there was a leak somewhere that they didn't know about.

Satisfied that the power was now fully off, Rimmer started typing in commands and unplugging the backup computer and plugging in Holly.

It was hours later and during that time Lister had not found him probably due to the express lift being offline. Rimmer wiped away sweat before turning on the switch that would boot Holly up as the main computer.

"Did it work?" Rimmer asked. "Yes it did Arn, I now have control of the entire system and I'm able to run of multiple screens at the one time, something I have not been able to do for a very long time. Over one million years I believe."

 

Lister stopped running when the power flicked back on. "Kryten, has Rimmer done any damage?" Lister asked over the radio. Kryten had remained in the drive room to continue monitoring the systems.

"If anything sir, he had improved the system. The dashboard is no long reading in Welsh, it's back to English, sir." Kryten said in amazement.

"Keep checking everything," Lister requested knowing Rimmer he probably screwed up something strange.

"What's up dudes," Holly said, appearing on the screen for Kryten, Lister and Cat.

"Holly," Lister exclaimed, not believing that he was really seeing the ship's computer. "How are you here? Is the room finally dried out."

"Just drying out the room was not enough to fix me. Arn fixed me," Holly said proudly of the hologram.

"How? I bet it was an accident," Lister replied in disbelief.

"Sir, it wasn't an accident. Mister Rimmer has been working on Holly ever since the ship flooded." Kryten replied. "He ordered me not to clean in that area unless he was around to supervise. He even locked me out of all the rooms that he was keeping Holly in."

"Rooms?" Lister asked as he scratched his head trying to work out how Holly could be in multiple rooms. "What do you mean rooms, Holly computer in one room."

"That is correct sir, but he took Holly apart and put him back together again," Kryten explained what he knew that Rimmer did.

"Rimmer's probably broke something, have you checked everything yet," Lister exclaimed. He didn't want to wake up in the middle of the night with the gravity upside down.

"He hasn't. But I am happy for you to have Kryten check my systems if it will put you at ease. Rimmer's not as hapless as you think, Dave." Holly said to the last human. "His biggest problem is that he lacks confidence and doubts his own ability. He didn't tell you that he was working on fixing me so that you wouldn't be disappointed when he failed. As you can see he succeeded because he was able to take his time to do everything properly and didn't rush anything. Every time you have gone into stasis, he has spent his time working on fixing me."

"But that is hundreds and thousands of years I have been in stasis," Lister said finding it hard to comprehend Rimmer had not gone insane in that amount of time.

"I didn't say he was quick about fixing me. He did the work properly and in some of my systems I am running better then I was before the accident, other's aren't working correctly. It's going to take time to work out what systems need to be tweaked. Best of all I no longer have an IQ of 6000, it's now 8000." Holly explained cheerfully, looking at Rimmer proudly. When he turned Rimmer's hologram all those years ago he never imagined he would end up owing his existence to him.

\- Red Dwarf -

Rimmer returned to his room that evening, having gone over everything and avoiding Lister because he didn't want to see his reaction.

"Hey," Lister greeted him. "Kryten and I have a surprise for you," Lister took his arm taking him away from the bunk rooms.

"Surprise? I don't think I am up for a surprise, I'm rather tired," Rimmer objected but still followed Lister through the ship to the recreation deck finding he instantly felt refreshed as Holly ran the code that made it feel like he'd just woken up from a good night sleep.

"Holly explained exactly what you'd been doing," Lister grinned ear from ear. "I couldn't believe it but he showed me video footage of you working on the ship and I took a peek at your fake astronavigation books. I cannot believe you spent years faking study and exams. This is a thank you for getting Holly back online."

Rimmer looked around, seeing that the rec room had been set up for a party. A party that was set up to his tastes and not Lister's like everything usually was.

Kryten handed over a flat rectangular package. "Open it sir."

Rimmer opened up the package, not knowing what to expect. He looked at the item he'd unwrapped. It was a wooden frame with a gold plaque.

_Officer of Artificial Intelligence Hologrammic Computer Systems_

_Arnold Judas Rimmer_

"Please just don't go and get an inflated head like you did the last time you were made an officer," Lister requested.

Rimmer looked up. "I don't understand."

"Rimmer, you just made it to officer. Kryten had a look over Holly's system. You did that all on your own. You now know more than the scientists that built Holly in the first place. Hundreds of people worked on Holly, building each individual part. You took Holly apart and built him from ground up, improving him and got him working again, fully operational. If that doesn't  make you an officer, I don't know what does."

"But I didn't pass a test," Rimmer said in disbelief. How could he be an officer without a test or cheating his way to the position?

"And you never will pass a written exam. There are other ways of becoming an officer. You earned it this time." Lister said, patting Rimmer on the shoulder.

"I never thought this would really happen. Are you sure we aren't in an unreality pocket, better than life of something else altogether?" Rimmer asked with wide eyes still looking at his award.

"This is real man, now let's party to celebrate." Lister cheered, picking up a beer.

"You just want an excuse to slack off," Rimmer said taking a drink of champagne for himself.

"And it's been forever since we had a  night out, together. Now come on and party, this is your party."

"I just want to take this and hang it up," Rimmer smiled, taking his plaque to the room, taking care to hang it up next to his Vending Machine Technician of the month certificate. Two things that he'd earnt for work on his own without bribing anyone else. They were real achievements

"This was you're doing, wasn't it Holly?" Rimmer asked the computer.

"It was Dave who suggested it, but I agreed. Just don't go mad with power. You've been in charge for years already without me around. Instead of being the Acting Senior Commanding Officer you are Senior Commanding Officer, being the only officer and all that."

"Glad to have you back Holly, things have not been the same here. I should go back to that party to celebrate your return," Rimmer changed to something more casual to join the others for the party. "This party isn't just for me, it is for you as well."


End file.
